Death by Pencil? Why not a Sword?

Ever seen John Wick? A Russian mafia boss, in an effort to explain John Wick’s ferocity and focus, claimed John had killed four people in a bar with a pencil. A pencil! It is true that someone can be killed with a well-place blow from a pencil, even a rolled-up catalogue can be a deadly weapon in the right hands. Virtually anything, including the fist, can be a deadly weapon. None of these are deadly enough though; hence atomic bombs and swords.

 

Since I will be adding to the Arms and Armor over the year and readying it for a major overhaul in the far flung future (its been on my assignment list for a year, so don't expect anything anytime soon), the whole wound, damage, hit point, paradigm keeps pouncing around in my head like a loose tiger. No fear, I plan to change nothing except…. Some stuff. At least, I will try to add some aspects to weapons and armor such that each ‘weapon class’ has its own unique qualities.

It is difficult though. Castles and Crusades does not purport to be, nor designed as, nor intends to be a simulation game. We do intend to create the facsimile of the drama and danger of combat. In order to do that and to keep the game manageable many things that would occur in the real world have to be discarded in the game. For example, magic can’t happen in the real world so we discard the ‘not happening’ of magic. Unicorns too.

That Aside.

As mentioned in a previous blog, damage is limited to the d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12. There are combinations and modifiers that can spread the damage variation out but essentially, we are left with all weapons doing 1-12 damage. With over 100 weapons to choose from, this does not give much wiggle room to make the weapons unique. There is weight and cost but those rarely ever play into the game in a meaningful manner. This pretty much leaves range, initiative bonuses, etc. or creating something unique that would make any one weapon better or worse than another. 

 

Another option is a killing blow. Follow my logic. A pencil can kill with one blow in the right place. A 22 slug can single-shot kill in the right spot. A sword should certainly be able to do the same. I like the idea. It is somewhat difficult to implement in Castles and Crusades because of hit points and weapon damage limitations. If some creature or monster has 100 hit points, the damage from a weapon to offer a killing blow would have to be fairly high. We only go to 12.

The Killing Blow

So I have an idea. If the roll to hit exceeds the AC by 10 points, a killing blow is made. I am not sure that would work as I would have to run some numbers. Maybe 20 points – but that would never happen. Perhaps the difference between the to hit roll and ACs should be added to damage. Anyway, this has all got me thinking and…. Drum roll…. I’m gonna do something.

Oh, and for those interested, I found a cool little book on the net about damage and warfare. A good quick read.